As most people know it has taken me months of hard graft with my rottie merlin and we have started to get somewhere over the last few months we have been doing so well in Agility, even entered him in a show for later on this year, but my go yesterday i could of quite happily given him up, this is how our day began at agility,
pulled up in the car squeals of delight from the back as he saw all the agility equipment out, that no problem, took him out the car and he pulled himself straight up onto his toes and was sniffing the air,then we did a couple of warm up exercises and he was fine,
Then joined the qeue and the problems started, interested in another dog to the point he renched my shoulder,when i let him off to do his run, he did two fence and belted off to play with this dog, would not come when recalled, growled at me when i took hold of his collar, growled at the instructor  when for the 5th time he had ran over to this other dog had been on his leader but pulled it out of my hand growled at the instructor when he caught him , he was frothing at the mouth and really being weird, and no one could understand as he had stopped all this carry on months ago and we were making huge progress but this was as though we were back to square one,so instead of getting really annoyed with him, i put him back in the car and got my young male collie out for a go, and i could not believe it when he started playing up, not jumping running up to this other dog, now he is really obedient so i asked the lady, is she in season, and her reply oh she has not bled for 3 days, so now i know why my boys were doing this, and he had not forgotten everything he had learned he was doing what comes naturally to him. Before i said anything to her the instructor asked her to leave told her that her dog may not be bleeding but can still be mated she did not have  a clue,but even after she left i could not work my boys as they both were running to the grass where she had been sitting and drawing the scent up to the top of there mouths you know the way males chatter, so i just wanted to get it out of my system, and plus i feel guilty that i thought merlin was reverting back to being a sod again.
thanks for letting me blow off steam.
Carol and merlin the saint.

We had exactly the same thing happen at our club this Saturday and everyone in the later classes had problems too!  You are not alone :-)

Jayne

Why do people get bitches and not know the cycle!!!!!  A bitch has not been to our ringcraft for 2 months as she had a funny first seson, and her owner would not bring her till she had stoped bleeding for a week, when she was sure the bitch was out this time!

Rox

They may be first timers with a bitch and not know completely about seasons etc. We have a young lady at our classes that has a gsd that has had a first season and then four weeks later has started another one. Just like a yorkie that we had at classes a few months back. Maybe the owners of intact males should also start to realise that at this time of year males do have tendencies to get the urge. They can smell a bitch from far away and even a spayed bitch, may give off an odour when sitting still and possibly driblling a little urine when sitting after spending a penny. :) Some male neutered dogs also give off a smell that atracts others. So, don't blame all owners. Just remember the seasons of the year.:) And have better control of your own dogs.

So entire male owners should KNOW when a bitch is in season and lock their dogs up?

Rox

No you don't have to keep your dog locked up. Just keep a better eye on them and train them to a better recall etc.:) If the people in schutzhund can do it so can others. Sorry to be a pain but I am a bit cheesed off when people can't get a recall from their dogs even if the dog they are chasing isn't in season.

That's a bit like saying that it's okay to wave bottles of whisky under the nose of an alcoholic! We all know that dogs will take an interest in bitches in season, but there's no need to make it worse than it needs be! Curtailing your life during the bitch's seasons is one  of the downsides. Bitches come in season throughout the year too - it's not just in spring (or else there would be puppies available in the summer).

PS. I've had entire bitches and entire dogs, so I know what it's like from both sides of the fence.

Also some bitches may not be in season but appear to be in season all the time if they have ovarian cysts etc or even the beginnings of a pyo; some spayed bitches are just generally "man magnets" too! :D

Interesting to note that in the sport of Schutzhund there are no restrictions on working in season bitches and entire dogs and in season bitches compete at the same time.

Carol you have my sympathies. Its soo frustrating when you think its cracked and have a set back. At least you know it wasnt Merlin being a so and so. :) with us it would be the scent of deer or rabbits that set him off so I do have a lot of work to do.

On this subject (sort of) can someone advise me without having to start a new thread?

Millie started puppy socialisation last week at 5 1/2 months - there were only 2 other dogs in this class, both males, although another two are expected to join next week, including another Scottie, hurrah, can't wait for that :D

Anyway, I am aware that at 51/2 months she could go into season at any time in the near future, and I actually mentioned to the instructor that we may have to miss a few weeks due to this so that if I don't turn up they know why.  Its only a six week course (so keeping my fingers crossed she will last until then!) and I'm prepared to lose my money paid for the course if she goes into season - it was a case of not joining up and then depriving her off the classes, or take the chance and join and if it happens, it happens, and I lose the money paid, so be it.  The theory of the course is that they give you the handouts and instruction, then you practice at home as its virtually impossible to get the puppies to concentrate properly there anyway, so hopefully they will still send me the 'homework'.

Now I know to look for the bleeding, swelling etc, and I also know that when the bleeding stops we're not 'out of the woods' yet!  Can anyone advise me how long to wait until after the bleeding stops before we go back to 'school'?

21 days is a normal bitches season,  but some bitches are longer or shorter!  When the bleeding has stoped after at least 18 days, wait until 21 to be totally sure, and take her back after that BUT after a season you really should bath her, and bath again the back end, also wash all bedding so that it doesn't reaply the sent when she is clean!!!

Take her after that, if dogs still show interest seriously then maybe take her away for that week just to help the male dog owners and also they may respect you for this!!!

Rox

Brill, will do this, thanks for that :-)